It’s that time of the year again when families all across the country are grappling with the increased cost of health insurance during open enrollment (our premiums rose about 20 percent, necessitating a change in plan with higher deductibles, etc.).

This WSJ story looks at where spending has increased and decreased in recent years (much of which is due to prices that are rising or falling) and, not surprisingly, it has become increasingly difficult for many families to make ends meet.

Importantly, a 25 percent gain over six or seven years is an inflation rate of only 4 percent, but this has come at a time when wage gains have been only a fraction of that or much less for those who have transitioned to lower paying jobs since the last boom went bust.

Future historians will no doubt have some fun with 20th and 21st century Americans’ propensity to buy stuff that they really don’t need with money they don’t have and then go store it in some shed. Businessweek recounts the dramatic increase in self-storage capacity in this story today, from which the graphic below was drawn.

While much of this is no doubt temporary storage due to life changes (divorce, relocation, etc.) much of it is likely akin to people who mindlessly pay the minimum balance on their credit cards every month, not really thinking about how this sort of thing adds up over the long haul, and, like banks, storage companies are more than happy to take their money.